90kb/sec possible on 56k?

Webmonkey

Hi, I just uploaded a report of my mini-company in school (http://www.kerrypages.com/documents/report.doc) I began downloading with my 56k crappy modem connection and it was downloading at first 90kb/sec and then down to 30kb a sec steady and downloaded fully without going below 30kb/sec transfer. I was amazed, the file was down in seconds.

Anyone else with a 56k modem can ye try see what speed ye get downloading it. Ok these servers are in london Telecity but god amazing speed! If all internet bandwidth came through these servers 56 people would be flying and don't say that it was a burst speed because it was consent all the way through the file and a steady speed!

SouperComputer

the data is probably being compressed at some stage along the line.

PiE

Or it was somehow cached from the upload?

spongebob

text files get the best compression too, such as a .doc (above) or a .txt file

eth0_

Could be you're using the wrong modem driver maybe?

air

A number of factors are influcencing this, to name but a few:

1. Compression is an integral part of the V90 protocol & as mentioned above text files etc result in the best compression results - try downloading a large jpeg or gif from the same address.

2. The file download speed dialog built into windows is a load of b***ox & is only there to give you a rough impression of whats going on.

For future reference you're never going to get much more than 3.5kilobytes/s throught a normal dialup because of the limited frequency range on a POTS connection. The reasons for this is that your connection to the exchange is filtered so that only components from around 400hz-4khz get through as this is where most information in voice resides. This means limited bandwidth & allows carriers to squeeze lots of voice calls onto their trunk networks.

bricks

If you try to upload a 10Meg file and time how long it takes then it will come out at the normal speed for 56k.
I know when files are downloading that it starts the download while you're deciding where to save the file you're downloading.

SouperComputer

if you try to upload a 10Meg file and time how long it takes then it will come out at the normal speed for 56k.

technically you should only get 36k on uploads as a modem is asyemetric (spelling?) AFAIK

Webmonkey

am but the file did download in around 10 seconds or less, must be very compressed hehe. BUt like it was downloading fairly fast to get 200k downloaded in 10k, don't u agree.

air

10:1 compression is nothing out of the ordinary for text compression. Comment about 56k modems being asymetric (ie slower uploads) is correct afaik.

sutty

lol... sorry to pop your bubble lads, but with IE when you go to download and get that "save to box" IE is downloading the file into the internet cache. So then when you get to the "download" window. Some of the file has already been downloaded. Then IE tryed to display how far its done. But show it wrong. Its something to do with how it workes out your D/L speed.

STaN

Originally posted by sutty
lol... sorry to pop your bubble lads, but with IE when you go to download and get that "save to box" IE is downloading the file into the internet cache. So then when you get to the "download" window. Some of the file has already been downloaded. Then IE tryed to display how far its done. But show it wrong. Its something to do with how it workes out your D/L speed.

heya sutty, nice to meet u at the beer (kinda) ... do i really look like patrick kielty?

[/OT]

Ive seen download speeds of 40kbs constant on my isdn when loading text. It is down to compression, not my slowness in clicking save and IE compensating as i have it to auto download immediately on visiting certain file types such as .doc & .zip